Mysore Manjunath (Violin)
Arun Ramamurthy (Violin)
Rohan Krishnamurthy (Mridangam)
Narendra Budhakar (Tabla)
I was a bit late for the concert, slated for 8 PM, but the actual concert started at 8.30, in view of an elaborate unnecessary introduction of the artists! The turn out was very good with a mix of South Indians, North Indians and Amercians.
The items were
Mahaganapthim
Aparama bhakti
Nannu brova (Abhogi)
Bridanavana saranga and raga malika RTP
Bhajan
Tillana
A short yet amazing show by Manunath although there was much pyrotechniques. What a speed combined with flawless bowing technique. It reminded one of L Subramaniam. His style is similar to Ganesh Kumaresh but at the same time also different and will attract western audience for sure. He was also very appreciative of the accompanists especially the mridangist Rohan who did an equally splendid job and won admiration from the crowd as well as the main artist. He was excpetional in the Pantuvarali and RTP where Manjunath threw in a lot of challenges and the feeling was as though a senior mridangam vidwan was on show.This kid is extraordinary, given that he is not even from India.
Arun Ramamurthy, a student of manjunath has enormous potential but needs to expand on his knowledge bas. The skill is very much there as shown hy his raga playing at the instructions of his guru and can be an asset to CM lovers in the US.
Sorry to say this, but the tabla was unnecessary. He is probably a well trained tabla player, but not ready for serious CM since he had no idea of what Manjunath was doing and the mridangist pretty much had to handle the whole concert.
I left as soon as the thillana was over and if any one wants to add to the review, please do so.